world of men's style / fashion / grooming

An UrbanDaddy Publication

He’s the US Solicitor General, currently arguing for the constitutionality of Obamacare in front of the Supreme Court—and as of 24 hours ago, he was an easy favorite. Then came what some writers are calling “one of the most spectacular flameouts in the history of the court.” He stuttered, he rambled, he lost his voice, and by the end of the day, he had gone from an unknown technocrat to the most notoriously incompetent lawyer this side of Lionel Hutz.

But we’re not here to pile on. We’re here to offer some consolation to Mr. Verrilli himself. Don, if you’re reading, it’s okay. Do you need a hug? You do. Take a breath. Try to collect yourself. And for the next five minutes, forget about the crushing media scrutiny and listen to our words of wisdom.

The pageantry of Fashion Week usually includes a few stars from the sports world. In recent years, they’ve looked damn good (Amare Stoudemire, for instance), and more importantly, they’ve made the events seem like more than just a weeklong festival of the most inaccessible regions of the fashion world. Pull it off right, and everybody wins.

Until, of course, someone doesn’t.

Page Six has leaked word that Michael Vick is trolling for Fashion Week invites, and it’s not going so well. It could be the whole “cruelty to animals” thing, or his penchant for square-shouldered three-button suits—or just that Anna Wintour’s more of a Giants fan. Either way, it looks like he'll be sitting this one out.

I wasn’t expecting to discover a three-step men’s facial cleanser and anti-aging formula designed to look like automotive oil in the Kempt mailbox. And I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be made from caviar.

But when duty calls, I answer.

Long story short, I’ve been using FaceLube® Finest Germany [sic] Engineering and Men’s Anti-Aging Skin Care Technology for a Man’s Man® for weeks now—and as you might expect, some pros and cons have been identified...

We see a lot of strange, ungodly things in the course of our blogging duties, and normally we’re content to let them go by without comment. But occasionally we’re confronted by a mixture of ambition and bad taste that’s so confounding, so utterly inexplicable, we have no choice but to inflict it upon the internet at large.

We have no explanation for what you see before you. In fact, there can be no explanation.

Is it a snuggie knockoff? A parody of inner-city style circa Criss Cross? Why is one of the cuffs a different color? Is it actually a dress? Is it for wizards? Is it related to the South Asian criminal tradition of thuggee? How are you supposed to walk?

We like patent loafers. We like espadrilles. But there is a larger issue at stake here, and we’re resisting the temptation to make it in all caps:

You can’t just mash together random shoes. Honestly.

We realize this is cheeky and deconstructivist and all those things, but there is no plausible reason for anyone to ever wear this shoe, other than to bask in the fact that they’re wearing something nonsensical. It’s even worse because jute soles are actually a cool thing if you’re dressing one notch above barefoot. But if you put a heel on them—or any material you don’t want to get sand on—they just look silly and pointless.

It’s basically a full-body hoodie (or if you prefer, a footless footie), the kind of thing you wear to broadcast the fact that you’ve stopped trying to interact with anyone who isn’t a cat. Sure it’s comfortable; that’s why it’s dangerous. That sweatpantsy indulgence is what leads intelligent, capable members of society into a life of indolence, shame, and blogging about microwaved foods.

Also, while it’s not mechanically impossible to have sex while wearing a onesie, it does seem unlikely.

Sometimes, you see something so horrible it makes you want to swear off retail entirely—something so foul, it calls into question the entire endeavor of making, buying and wearing new clothes. And frequently, the name Jimmy Choo is somehow involved.

We don’t want to make broad generalizations about menswear and womenswear, so we’ll just say that the problem here goes beyond the basic wrong-headedness of making a high-heeled galosh. (To wearers: tread carefully.) Jimmy Choo stands for everything you shouldn’t want in a winter boot: empty branding and aggressively anti-functional design.

Today we bring you some shocking news from the frontline of cutting-edge menswear: the garter belt for jeans. It’s part belt, part suspender—but at same time, neither—and looks like the sort of undergarment technology that could have come out of Victorian Era Britain.

On some level, this makes sense. Just like the width of a tie, there’s inevitably a measurable sweet spot for the low-slung waistline (we’ll assume the industry standard was set by Marky Mark circa 1992). But what’s most shocking is that someone saw an overlap between low-slung jean crowd and the fussy spat-wearers who might be willing to strap on a garter. If you can find us even one person in both category, we’ll eat our bucks.

Success gets all the headlines, but there are usually a few quiet failures beforehand. The trick is accepting them with grace and learning something along the way. And since practice makes perfect, some enterprising self-improvement gurus have decided to make a game of it.

This Business Card Presenter Tie was created in a single-day whirlwind of creativity as part of Dominic Wilcox’s Speed Creating Project, but it’s only a matter of time before it changes the world. From afar it looks like your standard business-issue neckwear, but pull a tab and the tie lifts up Dilbert-style to present a dangling business card.

Of course, in a business setting, you’re probably trying to avoid making the other person burst into hysterical laughter…but maybe it’s different for creatives.

If you found yourself watching an NFL game this weekend, you may have noticed a strange and unsightly creature clinging to the players’ feet. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the ugliest sneakers we’ve ever seen.

They’re part of a league-wide push for breast cancer awareness…but somehow, things got all magenta. It’s all the worse because the classic breast cancer ribbon is a mild pink that goes with just about anything. These, on the other hand, were loud enough to give Jay Cutler a concussion. For shame.

Facebook has a long proud history of getting people in trouble, but here’s one you might not have thought of: divorcées.

This AP piece opened our eyes to the growing number of spouses being busted through judicious use of social networks. Stories range from being caught playing Farmville during the kid’s soccer game to couples pics posted on the mistress’s Facebook page. Of course, everything’s archived and time-stamped, so anyone inclined to do a little digging can figure out just about anything they want. On Twitter, there are no secrets.

Of course, most of these problems are more the result of ungentlemanly behavior than invasive tech. It’s unnerving, but the best policy is still not to do anything you’d have trouble explaining to a judge.